A Ukrainian Catholic bishop has ruled out the possibility of peace talks with President Vladimir Putin, despite new Vatican calls for dialogue, as Russia’s Orthodox patriarch again accused the West of seeking to “destroy and conquer” his country.
“Dialogue would have been easier in the first days or month of this war. Although Pope Francis recently asked Putin for a ceasefire, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for openness to serious peace proposals, I don’t see any glimmer of peace at present,” Bishop Vitaliy Kryvytskyi of Kyiv-Zhytomyr told Italy’s Catholic TG2000 television channel.
The bishop was reacting to week-long Russian missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital and other towns, which damaged energy and water plants, and left at least 19 dead.
However, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin insisted a truce was “not only plausible, but also urgent and necessary” as a “first step” towards negotiations, and said the Pope remained ready to meet with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in a quest for peace.
“There is no peace without justice, but there is no justice without forgiveness, as St John Paul II reminded us at the beginning of this new millennium – and it is equally true that forgiveness requires conversion, a change of attitude reflected in actions,” Cardinal Parolin said in an interview with the Famiglia Cristiana weekly. “Despite difficulties, doors remain open and the dialogue is not interrupted, even if it faces misunderstandings. On the part of the Holy See, this desire has never failed, even if circumstances have prevented it from becoming a reality.”
However, at a Moscow liturgy, Patriarch Kirill warned that forces were “rising up again” to “destroy and conquer Russia”, and assured his country’s troops the Virgin Mary would watch over them.
“All this is clothed today in other verbal forms – but behind it remains the indelible dream of those who attacked Russia from the West: to destroy our sovereignty, deprive us of freedom and then use all the resources of the world's richest country for their own purposes,” said the Patriarch. “Today is the time to mobilise our spiritual forces, asking the Lord and the purest Queen of Heaven to give our people strength from above to stop the enemy and protect our Fatherland’s borders.”
In a weekend statement, the Brussels-based Commission of European Union Bishops’ Conferences (Comic) appealed to Moscow to stop the “horrific human suffering inflicted on the people of Ukraine by the brutal military aggression initiated by the Russian authorities”. They urged Moscow to negotiate “serious proposals” for "a solution to the conflict which respects international law and the territorial integrity of Ukraine."
Their episcopates were close to “all those who suffer because of this madness of war" and were concerned about "a further expansion of the war with disastrous consequences for humanity”.
A Catholic university professor from the western city of Lutsk told The Tablet Ukrainian Catholics were facing “growing local difficulties” because of the Vatican’s stance in the war, with many now unwilling to declare their Church affiliation publicly.
In contrast, on 3 October the Russian Orthodox prelate responsible for the patriarchate’s foreign affairs said that relations with the Catholic Church were “practically frozen”. Speaking on the state television station Russia 24, Metropolitan Anthony Sevryuk said: “At this stage I must say that some comments we read and hear not only from the lips of the Pope, but also the great part of his aides, absolutely do not contribute to the preparation of a new meeting and further cooperation.”
On Tuesday last week, the Holy See’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia spoke at an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly, quoting the Pope’s plea for a truce that would allow “for the start of negotiations that will lead to solutions that are not imposed by force, but consensual, just and stable”.
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